The easily missed great games of 2013

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crunksmcgee

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I was just reading the AV Club Goty list and someone put the new Call of Juarez as one of their GOTYs. I had completely forgot about this game, yet I remember really enjoying it. I might even put it in my top 10 somewhere.

Can anyone think of games that may not get a second glance that deserve it?

Great DLC might also be worth bringing up, for example Mass Effect 3: Citadel.

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BeachThunder

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Akeldama

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Gunpoint

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bigjeffrey

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#4  Edited By bigjeffrey

Totally forgot that i saw the Call of Juarez game is $3.74 on XBL. thanks for the reminder just picked it up.

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PeezMachine

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Once my backlog clears out I'm definitely hopping on the Blood Dragon/Gunslinger bundle.

I'm a PC guy, so I'm gonna make a big fuss over Wargame: Airland Battle. Perhaps it didn't merit a lot of fanfare because Wargame: European Escalation came only a year prior, but it's still worth hyping. If you skipped Reus thinking that it looked like an iOS game then you did yourself a great disservice. It's a rabbit hole full of as much complexity as you care to see in it. For great DLC, go Civ 5: Brave New World. It perfectly encapsulates the Clausewitz bottom line, "war is merely the continuation of policy by other means," and unifies all of Civ's disparate systems under a single banner.

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turboman

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Guacamelee maybe?

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Yummylee

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#7  Edited By Yummylee

I swear, this is like the third ''unappreciated/missed games of the year/generation'' thread I've seen this month.

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crithon

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steamworld dig now out on steam.

Meh, overlook has to be really bad sales, if the deves can get the money to port them over onto iOS or Android it's not completely over. The whole mind share of what is popular is like saying everyone is playing CoD Ghosts, fuck 'em who cares about them. I'd rather play a nice jrpg on the gameboy advance.

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jeanluc

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#9  Edited By jeanluc  Staff

As mentioned Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a fantastic game. I also just got into Rogue Legacy, man that game is great.

Some others that I've forgotten about but are totally awesome are Kentucky Route Zero, and Battleblock Theater.

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ShaggE

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Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior.

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Dalai

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There were a handful of indie games that made the rounds earlier in the year that might get lost like Monaco, Gunpoint, The Swapper and Kentucky Route Zero. Those deserve at least a mention.

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PimblyCharles

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I think Metro Last Light was kind of overlooked... maybe? It's a fantastic time from start to finish, great story, guns are a blast to shoot, creepy as hell enemies & looks absolutely gorgeous on PC.

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MEATBALL

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#13  Edited By MEATBALL

Runner 2. Does The Wonderful 101 count given the WiiU's small userbase and the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off critical reception?

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cornbredx

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Nope. I remember every game Ive played and which ones are not worth remembering or playing ever again.

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audioBusting

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Monaco and Ridiculous Fishing are so, so good, but so easily overlooked.

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spankingaddict

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#16  Edited By spankingaddict

Sly Cooper : Thieves in Time

The Swapper

Guacamelee

The Stanley Parable

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Blommer4

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@spankingaddict: As someone who didn't know what Stanley Parable was before it got a MASSIVE media attention before, and right after, realese... I don't really feel like that's a overlooked game, in any way.

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Christoffer

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I think the hype for Scrolls burned out faster than the game deserved. With that said, I didn't exactly explore the longevity of the game.

It might not be fully released though, come to think of it.

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SharkEthic

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@blommer4 said:

@spankingaddict: As someone who didn't know what Stanley Parable was before it got a MASSIVE media attention before, and right after, realese... I don't really feel like that's a overlooked game, in any way.

Agreed. The Stanley Parable was featured on a TV show aired by the national broadcasting corporation in my country. It might be indie, but it's anything but overlooked.

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StrawHat_NPC

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#20  Edited By StrawHat_NPC

Persona 4 golden. It came out in Europe in February. GOTY

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hermes

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#21  Edited By hermes

Rayman Legends. One of my most serious contenders for GOTY...

Sure, with the latest trailer and the new platforms, many people might look it up now, but it was almost criminal that the game was even less successful than Origins being a lot better.

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emfromthesea

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Proteus is a really interesting game. Neat that it's on the PS Vita now too.

I'm not sure how well it sold, but Tearaway is pretty fantastic. I strongly recommend trying it if you have a PS Vita.

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ThunderSlash

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#23  Edited By ThunderSlash

Card Hunter! It's an SRPG with a bit of TCG mixed in made by an ex-Irrational Games dev. Oh yeah and it's a free to play flash game- NO DON'T LEAVE THE F2P HOOKS AREN'T MALICIOUS! Seriously, if they had sold the single player campaign for like 15 bucks I would've bought it. Go try it, it's free and it's really good.

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abendlaender

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Fire Emblem Awakening

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wallee321

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Towerfall? I've heard great things about it, but haven't played it.

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hans_maulwurf

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#26  Edited By hans_maulwurf

Shadowrun Returns was pretty good. Just the right length, fun to play and with some good writing. And gorgeous graphics if you appreciate isometric 2d art.

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MEATBALL

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#27  Edited By MEATBALL
@hermes said:

Rayman Legends. One of my most serious contenders for GOTY...

Sure, with the latest trailer and the new platforms, many people might look it up now, but it was almost criminal that the game was even less successful than Origins being a lot better.

Seriously. Origins felt like a proof of concept, Legends was everything this Rayman revival could be. So damn good. Origins was fun, but I found it a *little* overrated, Legends on the other hand I consider an instant classic.

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Nekroskop

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#28  Edited By Nekroskop

Metal Gear Rising. That game has to make at least top 15. DMC shouldn't even be allowed in the top 30, Brad

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MEATBALL

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Metal Gear Rising. That game has to make at least top 15. DMC shouldn't even be allowed in the top 30, Brad

Metal Gear Rising is definitely in my personal Top 10, gotta disagree with you on DmC, though, it's a great game and easily one of the 20 best games I've played this year.

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BeachThunder

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#30  Edited By BeachThunder

@meatball said:
@hermes said:

Rayman Legends. One of my most serious contenders for GOTY...

Sure, with the latest trailer and the new platforms, many people might look it up now, but it was almost criminal that the game was even less successful than Origins being a lot better.

Seriously. Origins felt like a proof of concept, Legends was everything this Rayman revival could be. So damn good. Origins was fun, but I found it a *little* overrated, Legends on the other hand I consider an instant classic.

Does Legends do this after every five or so deaths?

No Caption Provided

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MEATBALL

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Nope!

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TheFakePsychic

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hermes

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#33  Edited By hermes

@beachthunder: No, it doesn't.

However, the pacing is a lot better, to the point you are rarely stuck in a section for long (except on the invasion levels, because fuck those).

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Vod_Crack

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@shagge said:

Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior.

I thought Rise of the Triad was garbage. It's a fairly of good reimagining of a game that wasn't that good to begin with. Oh, and let's throw in a load of terrible first-person platforming segments in there, everyone is bound to love those. I would rather play vanilla Doom from 1993, any day.

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ShaggE

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@vod_crack: I absolutely hate to say it, but yeah, you're not wrong. I loved the game, and it's one of my most enjoyed games of the year, but when I look at it from a non-ROTT-fan's perspective, I can see that it's kind of a mess. (and as a ROTT superfan, FUCK those platforming sections. Good thing for old-school cheats)

I still recommend it for people who haven't played it, though. When it's good, it's REALLY good, and I truly believe that Interceptor will be capable of amazing things once they have a couple more games under their belts.

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BambamCZ

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Definitely The Swapper and Gunpoint.

And I thought The Cat Lady, but upon checking that was December 2012.

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LucidDreams117

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Mass Effect The Citadel is an excellent choice. Go play that. It made me more happy about the ending of that trilogy and the series as a whole. It's how the game should end. Period.

My choice, and I hope it means others will check it out, is Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons.

Don't get me wrong. Among the Giant Bomb crowd we all know about it well because of the now long running joke caused probably unintentionally by Brad.

But outside of that, like my friends, have no idea about that game. And it needs to be played/experienced the same way Journey has to be. It's so good. And in all seriousness, it's hard to think of ten other games this year that can top that.

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alistercat

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Phoenix Wright.

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RazielCuts

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@meatball said:
@nekroskop said:

Metal Gear Rising. That game has to make at least top 15. DMC shouldn't even be allowed in the top 30, Brad

Metal Gear Rising is definitely in my personal Top 10, gotta disagree with you on DmC, though, it's a great game and easily one of the 20 best games I've played this year.

Whoa, DmC came out this year? Maybe it has been a long year after all...

Shadowrun Returns was pretty good. Just the right length, fun to play and with some good writing. And gorgeous graphics if you appreciate isometric 2d art.

How's the Workshop scene been around that game? I think I'll probably pick this up in the Christmas Steam Sale.

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Animasta

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#40  Edited By Animasta

ZENO CLASH 2

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ChuckDeNomolos

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Max Payne 3. If anything it's a pretty great piece on deconstructing a protagonist (or cover shooters as a genre if we want to go down that rabbit hole) through the lens of a Tony Scott movie, and the soundtrack is goddamn amazing. It's not easy though, and the difficulty curve spikes in a way that reflects the narrative. In the age of games that punish the shit out of you, Max Payne 3 really makes you feel like you accomplished something when you can take down an entire room of armed to the teeth, body armor wearing mercenaries. I also just love the way the game is direct opposites occurring all at once: A cover shooter that punishes you for sitting in cover, pushing you out in the open for a wild, frenzied gun-battle that occurs in slow motion. It may not be the Max Payne people wanted, but it's exactly what I needed at the time, and really hope people give it a chance.

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meptron

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I looked dragons dogma: dark arisen. Maybe not quite goty. But still a really great game.

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LucidDreams117

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I totally agree about Max Payne 3. Easily missed because it wasn't dark and noir like. Huge mistake for missing it because of that.

Side point: I don't think that game came out in 2013 though.

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MuttersomeTaxicab

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pyromagnestir

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Oh right... Or as I know it, the game that maybe, finally, maybe put me on the path to actually getting therapy... Heh. I think I found my game of the year!

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Justin258

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@yummylee said:

I swear, this is like the third ''unappreciated/missed games of the year/generation'' thread I've seen this month.

There weren't that many AAA games released this year that are really "GOTY-worthy". Bioshock Infinite had a pretty good story, Tomb Raider had really good gameplay, but neither of those should be "the best that this year has to offer". Yet those two and The Last of Us are pretty much what we've got. Maybe Devil May Cry and Metro Last Light. Is it really a surprise that some people are saying "Hey! There are good games over here, you guys just aren't paying attention"? Especially when the 3DS should pretty much win everything this year.

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MuttersomeTaxicab

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Redhotchilimist

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#48  Edited By Redhotchilimist

@meatball said:
@hermes said:

Rayman Legends. One of my most serious contenders for GOTY...

Sure, with the latest trailer and the new platforms, many people might look it up now, but it was almost criminal that the game was even less successful than Origins being a lot better.

Seriously. Origins felt like a proof of concept, Legends was everything this Rayman revival could be. So damn good. Origins was fun, but I found it a *little* overrated, Legends on the other hand I consider an instant classic.

I was bummed because I thought Legends was a lot worse than Origins. It's more... linear? Feels dumb to talk that way about a straightforward platformer, but it feels like they focused too much on the style of gameplay Origins had in the treasure stages and the final boss stages, where all you do is run perfectly in one direction and is punished with instant failure if you deviate from the path at all. Legends had invasion stages, musical stages, stages where you free one of the princess characters and the stages where you chase the mr. Dark teensie around for a bit. That's too much of the same kind of deal for me(Although I love the musical ones). I thought the mosquito stages changed things up a bit in the original even if they were a little samey, and this time they are all gone.

They messed up the level design overall, in my opinion. The final world with those "remakes" of the musical levels was terrible. Murphy levels were a boring mess for me on the 360, to the point where I would just not play them until I had to get more teensies. While it's nice in theory that all the levels are more equal in terms of difficulty, this meant I could not get my friends to play through Legends with me the way we played through Origins all the way to the mountian area. There is no sense of progression. I know Origins barely had any kind of villain, but in Legends you just beat the same guy at the end of every boss fight, magically, even the very final one. I was honestly surprised when the credits rolled.

The collectibles are weird now, too. King lums that made every lum be worth twice the amount for a short time period were replaced by picking up lums in the correct order, so it's more of the running in one drection thing and less of the messing around. And there are a ton more teensies in this game's levels, most of whom are not hidden in interesting rooms, they're just hanging around in small alcoves. Was a real eye-opener to pay the stages they remade from origins and see how much more busywork they became when you had to run around collecting a lot more stuff than they originally had in them. They became an easy way to get more collectibles since the developers had to cram it all in where they could, out in the open where there used to be none.

I didn't hate the game or anything, it was still enjoyable for a while. But the most fun I had was playing the Origin stages and then Kung Foot for about an hour, and I don't think that's a great sign. It's also impossible for Legends to feel fresh and new the way Origins did, it's just more of the same presented in ways that I felt were largely worse. I'd like to hear about you guys' experiences with it, because they are clearly pretty different from the one I had. Unless, you know. It's all just up to taste.

I didn't play many games this year that will be overlooked, I think. Thought about Metal Gear Rising, but Jeff likes it, it'll get its due. This site in particular will probably ignore everything on handhelds besides Zelda and Fire Emblem, but I don't have any strong feelings about that because I largely just played 360 games all year. I think Brothers will get more coverage than it deserves.

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Guesty_01

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Call of Juarez Gunslinger IS a fantastic game. I can't really think of anything I've played this year that might get overlooked, a lot of the stuff I played this year had already been out on PC - Hotline Miami, Terraria, Spelunky, Diablo 3

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GERALTITUDE

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#50  Edited By GERALTITUDE

Guacamelee! has been getting some traction but far less than it deserves. It's a straight up knock out masterpiece of its genre.